November 11, 2021 Lest We Forget

John stood in the bow of the landing craft. His last two years of training had led him to this day. His nerves were raw and he could almost hear the beat of his own heart above the roar of the engines. 

“Ready gents! We will be hitting the shore in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5…” His sargent’s voice was drowned out by the sudden barrage of gunfire that laced the air. 

It felt so unreal. 

But the reality hit home with a wave of fear, adrenaline, and action as the front of the landing craft surged onto the sand and the bow door dropped open. Water flowed around John’s feet as he commanded them to move. He felt his buddies around him rush forward in a mass of organized confusion.

It had begun.

The longest day of John’s life.

His training kicked in and he began to wade to the shore, waves crashed over his back as he struggled to remain upright. To this day he can’t believe that the whizzing bullets which splashed all around him never pierced his body – unlike two of his best friends. Randy fell in the knee-deep water and never regained his feet as bullets ripped through his prone body. John pushed away all emotions – if he felt anything he was afraid he would break down and cry.

Tears were a soldier’s enemy in the heat of battle. 

Brian was the next one to fall. They’d reached the dry beach and began to run. He looked back and saw his friend from high school lying in six inches of bloodied water. 

More of his buddies would fall before the day was won. 

John crouched low and ran for his life. His training was all he could remember. His target was in front of him. The pillbox needed to be stopped. It would kill more of his friends until they took it out. Bullets whipped by and his blood flowed through his veins in an attempt to keep up with his racing feet. 

He must not stumble, he must not falter. He looked to his right and another of his friends stumbled and then staggered as the bullets ripped through his head. It was a sight he wished he’d never seen.

Tears are a soldier’s enemy on the battlefield.

He would save the tears for the dark of night some other day. All that mattered now was survival.

The longest day of his life. Yet his conscious mind strove to wipe those memories from his soul. 

Horror is not a strong enough word for what John experienced that day, June 6, 1944. So many died. They sacrificed their future so the world would have a brighter one. 

John still doesn’t know how he survived that day. Was it luck, or some kind of divine intervention? He would never know. But each one of his sixty-plus years he lived after that day was a vast fortune that so many were robbed of. 

John sat with the memory of that terrible day. These were John’s last days and he stared at the mountains in the distance outside the window of his hospital room. John spoke to his nephew about D-day for the first time in all those years. He knew it may be the last time he could share those experiences with anyone.

It was still raw after all that time. 

The pain swelled up into his heart and his stomach churned with the agony of what he remembered. Tears were no longer the enemy. Yet, he found his eyes were dry. He could not cry for those who were lost, the pain was too deep. 

He knew his time on the earth was soon coming to an end. He hoped that the world which inherited the sacrifices of those that died on that bloody beach in Normandy would be worthwhile. 

***

My uncle John fought on the beaches of Normandy all those years ago. It was another world back then. In his last days in a hospice in Calgary, he shared a glimpse of what that day was like. He found it very difficult to talk about and he had rarely ever shared with anyone what he went through on that day of horror. 

On this November 11, I hope the world can remember the sacrifices those soldiers made so we could live in freedom from tyranny. I am sure he would be appalled at some of the things going on today. With people claiming this medical emergency is some form of tyranny.

Those soldiers who died on the beach fought real tyranny. 

Lest we forget.